This happened back in 1972-‘73 in a town called Channelview Texas. That's in HarrisCounty just east of Houston off of the I-10 freeway.

I haven't told anyone about this all these years but I will never forget it. I'm 52 years old now and live in WashingtonState. I didn't think about it before I moved up here but they have the things up in Washington as well. Lucky for me I haven't seen one after I left Texas, but I'm not looking for one. However I think I know what the one that was following me wanted.

The first encounter…The first time was the summer of 73' and a school buddy of mine along with my little brother went camping not far from my house. This was a place in the middle of a large field with 4 ponds in it we called the “Dynamite Holes.” That's because the holes were blasted out with dynamite when they were looking for oil several years ago. We decided to put our two man pup tent off to one side of the pond that we did most of our swimming in. There was another pond next to it that had a lot of weeds around it so no one swam in that one. The bank was slightly elevated around the area that I had my sleeping bag and the water around the pond was about 10-15 feet away. That was the weed pond and it was to the north of us. The next pond was the one we swam in and it was just off to the east of us. There were two other ponds near by. One was northeast of the weed pond and had a small area that connected with the swimming pond. And another pond that was about 50 yards southwest of the camp site.

Somewhere between ten o'clock and midnight that night every body went to bed. I went into my sleeping bag with my head towards the weed pond so I could see the fire we had going about 5 feet from my feet. The tent was off to my left about 20 feet or less. It was a clear night with hardly any breeze at all. I had my dog and Mike (my buddy) had his also and both dogs were lying just on the opposite side of the fire pit from me. The fire was getting low and I was just about to fall asleep but I could hear something walking around the west side of the weed pond heading my way. It was coming up pretty fast with long heavy steps. I looked down at the fire because the dogs were growling and looking past me over my head. The footsteps stopped just as it got behind me. I knew the pond was 10 feet away from my head so the thing was less than that to me. I couldn't move. All I could do was keep the sleeping bag hood over my head and keep watching the dogs. My plan was that if the thing tried to grab me, hopefully the dogs would jump up and scare it off. But all they did was stare at the thing that was behind me and growl with their eyes as wide as silver dollars. But they never moved. After what seemed like 20 minutes the thing went on its way around the pond, passed the tent where the other two were sleeping and out towards the open field. That's when I got out of the sleeping bag and went over to the tent to wake the others. Mike had his shotgun but by the time they came out it was too far away for a shot. Several hundred yards from the pond off to the East was a church and they had lights in their parking lot. The field had been mowed not long before we went camping so you could see the silhouette of a dog running in the field between us and the church. North of the field was several acres of woods, and that was where the thing was going. It was BIG with long hair hanging from its long arms. And it was moving fast across the field even though it was only walking. We just watched it go into the woods and after that we grabbed all our gear and headed home. Well that was the first encounter.

The second encounter…A few weeks after the camping trip I was at home on Norrell St. in Channelview Texas, east of Houston just north of I-10.

We had a house that was (L) shaped with a small storage room on the north side. Between the store room and the inside corner of the (L) was a concrete patio and next to the store room was the sliding back door that went into the den/family room. It was about 9-10 pm and I was getting ready to go to bed. I was in the bathroom that was next to the inside corner of the (L) and it had a window that looked out onto the patio at the back of the house. The light was on next to the back door so you could see everything that was on the patio up to the side of the store room. As I finished my shower and was drying off I could see the full shape of some one standing at the back sliding door looking into the den area were my Dad was sitting. My Dad was in his lounge chair with his back to the door watching the television that was on the opposite wall. Although the bathroom window had water on it from the steam I could see that the thing looking in was bent forward in order to have its head low enough to be able to see in the house. This was a big person both in height and bulk and that was when I decided to wipe the window with my towel. I should have turned the light off in the bathroom first but I didn't and just as I started to wipe the window it stood up! It looked at me, turned and with one step was off the patio and around the storage room before I could get a good look at it. If I remember right the size of the patio was 6' x 12' so it had to take one step that covered about 5' to get off the patio. Anyway I covered myself with the towel and went in the den were my Dad was thinking he may have fallen asleep with the T.V. on like he usually did. But he was awake in his chair and I told him what I saw. He looked at me and said “yea I know, I could see the shadow from the back door on the floor in the den.” I asked him what did he want to do about it and he told me that there wasn't anything we could do - So much for the 2nd encounter.

The third encounterA few days after the 2nd encounter I was going to walk down the street and visit with a friend of mine named Greg Smith. My house was about in the middle of the block on the east side of the street and Greg's house was at the end of the street to the north on the west side of the block, that put it about 6-7 houses away. I can't remember the time but it was dark outside and the porch lights were on. The house across from mine and just one house north was a vacant home that some of the kids would go to so we could smoke cigarettes and hide out from our folks, maybe sneak a beer from home and drink it with our buddy's. Well after I walked out of the house I could hear dogs barking from the other street behind the old vacant house. I didn't think much of it and started walking up the street to Greg's place. As soon as I made it past the old house I heard the dogs and they were going nuts, so I turned to see what it was that they were barking at. Just then I saw this large thing that was in the back yard of the old house step over a 3-4 foot high chain link fence and started walking along the side of the house toward the street. I was about one house away by this time and I could see that his head was even with the eves of the house as it headed to the street. That caught my attention real fast. I keep walking towards Greg's house and looking behind me every second or so to keep an eye on that thing. It went to the street and started walking strait at me. I knew from all my hunting times that you don't want to run from a wild animal unless you have no other choice because this may cause the thing to run after you like your its food. So I started walking faster. But every time I looked behind me the thing was getting closer and closer. I could see the long big arms with long hair moving as it walked, and the steps it took were about twice as long as mine so it was catching up with me. By this time I was just about to start running because I couldn't walk any faster. Just as I got inside Greg's yard I hit the gas and ran up the walk and in the house. I didn't waste time knocking or anything, I just wanted in. Everyone in the house came up to see what the problem was and I started telling them what happened. Greg and me along with my little brother (he was spending the night at Greg's house with Greg's little brothers) all went out to see if we could see anything. The last I saw of the thing it was about even along side of a large tree in the yard next to Greg's house. We went over to the tree and looked around with a flash light but didn't see anything. That house next to Greg's was also vacant and didn't have a porch light on. Looking at it now, as we were standing around the big tree trying to make sense of what happened, I remember the tree was swaying and moving a lot. However for the life of me I can't recall any wind blowing that night. In fact I don't think there was any wind. Weird isn't it...
Well that's it. Let me know what you think Bobbie.
Feel free to call me anytime you're in the area.

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